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Help with setting up Shell Dweller tank

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I am preparing to buy a 50 lb. bag of pool filter sand and was wanting to get some black sand to mix with it from Petco/Petsmart, this will be for a 55 gallon tank. Was wanting to know if 1 5 lb. bag would be enough black sand to make a difference or should I get 2 5 lb. bags? Also I want to possibly put mopani driftwood into the tank, would this be O.K. or would this not be such a good idea? Last of all what type of filtration do I need to use, I have alot of sponge filters and I have an AC 110 and AC 70 for filtration, I know the sponge filters would be good to keep from sucking up babies, should I put a sponge filter over each filter intake or should I use sponge filters and if so how many for the 55 gal.

Get some Black Diamond or Black Beauty (same thing, different trade names) blasting grit. It's less than $10/50 lb bag, and will give you plenty to mix with the pfs to get the darkness you want. Check hardware or farm supply stores for that, and go with the largest grit size available.
Filtration is determined by tank stocking. In a 55 you only have enough floor space for 2 species of substrate spawners, and you don't crowd Tang cichlids like Malawi mbuna. I ran 2 70's on my heavily stocked 55's before I upgraded to 75's, the 70 or the 110 along with an air-driven sponge filter should be fine for your purposes.

Get some Black Diamond or Black Beauty (same thing, different trade names) blasting grit. It's less than $10/50 lb bag, and will give you plenty to mix with the pfs to get the darkness you want. Check hardware or farm supply stores for that, and go with the largest grit size available.
Filtration is determined by tank stocking. In a 55 you only have enough floor space for 2 species of substrate spawners, and you don't crowd Tang cichlids like Malawi mbuna. I ran 2 70's on my heavily stocked 55's before I upgraded to 75's, the 70 or the 110 along with an air-driven sponge filter should be fine for your purposes.

I'm planning on getting only multi's for the tank and probably some trumpet snails at a later time to keep the sand stirred up. Also I want to attach the sponge to each intake of the AC 70 and AC 110 filter instead of using just a sponge filter set up. I've googled and noticed that alot of people do this and it works great as long as you rinse the sponge in aquarium water when it gets clogged or nearly clogged with debre. When I lived in Pa. I had an AC 50 hanging on my 20 gallon and it seemed to work great, I'm just wanting to keep all the babies safe when the adults decide to breed.

In my old 33g multifasciatus tank I used sand mixed with crushed coral as the substrate, this helped keep the pH of the tank where I needed it. For filtration I used a rena xp3 canister filter, it provided good flow in the tank. I did keep a sponge over the intake to protect fry from getting sucked up. Did also keep a sponge filter in the tank as well. The great thing about the sponge filters is lots of small 'stuff' grows on the sponges which small fry can feed off of. With a 55g you could use sponge filters as the only source of filtration, can get larger sponge filters. I would probably add in one powerhead to one side of the tank to help circulate the water if just using sponge filters.

For shells I was able to buy them cheap by the pound on ebay. Whale eyes worked rather well for multifasciatus. Think I was able to get 100 shells for $10-15 shipped. For a ratio try to have 2-3 shells per fish. I had roughly 200 shells in the 33g long. In about 6 months my colony of multifasciatus had completely overtaken the whole tank.

I have a mix of aragonite sand and black flourite in my tanganyikan tank. You would be better off with some aragonite as it supports the pH and hardness the fish need. Wood would be ok, but I wouldnt get anything that leaches heavily like mopani...some well soaked manzanita branches paired with a bunch of rock and shells would look more natural.